As Her Breath Fades
by Determined-Day-Dreamer
Summary: It was all he could do, to sit there helplessly still, as the glassy crystals shot forward, encasing her body in their hold. Like a beautiful chrysalis, from which his dear friend would sprout wings and fly. Away from Twilight Town, away from Roxas and Axel, Organization XIII, Kingdom Hearts, maybe even the world as they knew it. (Spoilers for KH:Days. Rated T for Character death.)


Hey, everyone! Fallen here! Thought I'd dabble in a new fandom that I loved. :)

This scene made me cry when I first watched it! D':

Also, there will be an A/N for my inactivity as of late at the end, so I ask that you please take the time to read it. Thank you. *heart*

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**WARNING: Spoilers for the game _Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days._**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own anything within the _Kingdom Hearts_ franchise.**

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A burst of black mist-like energy, and the crackle of static, colors alternating between shades of deep indigo and rich, oceanic blue. There was the _whoosh_ing of an ethereal breeze. The weapon in the spiky-haired blonde's hand vanished with a beam of light, and Roxas swayed heavily, hand pressed to his skull to quell the sudden, almost blinding _pain_ that shot across his forehead. He saw a girl, dressed in the same black garb as he, teeter off balance before him, knees buckling, sending her down to the ground. She slouched forwards, eyes fluttering open, but only halfway. He studied her a moment, still trying to regain his lost equilibrium.

She had a creamy, youthful complexion, with short, blackish hair that hung around her face and neck in limp strands. Her lighter lashes, long and graceful, flickered once more. She was donned in a long, cloak that covered her entire body, even her legs, with a large zip running up the front. It remained unfastened for an inch or two at the very top, before flaring out into a large hood, showing a glimpse of her shoulders and collarbone. Her loose sleeves hovered over her arms, limp and hanging at her sides, glove-clad hands completely unfurled. The bluest of blue eyes Roxas could ever remember seeing on a person seemed dull and unfocused. The girl seemed as if she had been drained entirely of her life force, sitting quiet and unresponsive like that.

"..." He approached her, but not quiet knowing _why_. He felt as if... as if he _knew_ her, from somewhere. "Who are you... again?" he murmured quietly, hand still pressing to his scalp. He stopped just short of her, still standing while she remained unsteadily seated on her knees. "It's weird. I feel like I'm forgetting something really important..."

Her vivid chrome-blue eyes remained fixated on the red-brown stone below their bodies, the luminescent glow of Twilight Town's namesake skies striking prettily against the pavement and warm, earth-toned buildings that surrounded the plaza. The scent of engine exhaust, ever-so-faint, flowed on a calming breeze from the Station. Briefly, the Nobody pondered on whether a train had just arrived or not. He mentally batted the random thought away.

"You'll be... better off now... Roxas," the girl murmured, before her slight form lurched to the side as her body seemingly gave in on whatever fatigue seemed to have claimed her. Roxas started with a quiet noise of surprise, moving instinctively forward to catch the raven-haired girl as she fell lifelessly into his hold. She gave no resistance, merely resting as her head lulled slightly back over his arm. Something reminiscent of wonder and awe flowed through the blonde Keyblade Bearer as what looked like little sparkling shards of crystal began to emanate from her tired form. It floated up into the air, graceful as a butterfly, before simply... vanishing, into thin air.

His hands gripped her shoulder and hip gently, and he tried not to let his grasp shake or waver as a horrid thought came over his mind. "Am I... the one who did this to you?" he inquired gently, voice hardly over a whisper. He gazed over her body, and the floating glass-like shards leaving it, before fixing his blue eyes to her own.

The girl – _Is she a Nobody, too?_ he couldn't help but wonder – grimaced slightly, and had Roxas contained a heart, he would have felt it tug in sorrow. Even when in pain, she still looked very pretty. "No..." she murmured, voice quiescent and sweet as she spoke, trying to soothe the one holding her so close, "It was my choice... to go away now..."

She sounded so weak...

"Better that... than to do nothing... and let Xemnas have his way." His eyes widened a fraction. _She knows Xemnas?_

Her head once again tilted back, eyes casting to the serene indigo-blue sky, patched in peaches-and-cream clouds. If one looked closely, they might have been able to see a hint of stars behind the dusk-painted heavens. She inhaled, before letting out a sighing breath. "I belong with Sora."

Something about that name struck a chord deep within the very fibers of Roxas' soul. Almost as if something were stirring from within him – like another life, a separate consciousness.

The glassy fragments drifting upwards made sounds similar to what seemed like a thousand crystal chandeliers shattering all at once, their tinkling making a stray thought connect the gentle noise to stardust as if sparkled.

"And now, I am going back... to be with him."

Why did that sentence make him feel so... lost inside? Not sad – never that, for a Nobody such as him could never feel emotion, let alone one as potent as grief or sorrow – but... confused, almost as if he were being left behind, or loosing someone dear to him.

Her leather-glove-covered hand drifted up to where his own supported her shoulder, grasping the edges of his fingers with a strength that the Nobody had thought left her form long ago. "Roxas..." she uttered again, a stern determination peeking from beneath her hushed tone and tired azure gaze as she stared intently into his eyes, "I need you... to do me a favor." The young male tipped his head ever-so-slightly to the side on instinct, wondering just what it was this strangely familiar girl wanted him to do. "All those hearts that I've captured... _Kingdom Hearts_... set them free."

He felt his gaze straying from her own in deep thought. "Kingdom Hearts..." he echoed in a mumble, "Free them?"

There was a sound like something cracking, and a small noise mixed between surprise, distress, and _acceptance_ escaped the girl's lips. Roxas' sky-blue eyes snapped down towards her legs, and he gasped to see that large crystals, like ice, had begun to materialize and sprout over her lower body. He wondered, somewhere, if the ice-like stuff made her feel cold. His hand drifted down to hover nearby the growing shards, the fragments drifting up from her body only increasing in density as the seconds ticked by, like the hands of the Clock Tower that was erected proudly behind him.

"It's too late... for me to undo my mistakes," said she, as the crystals quickly crept up her legs, "But you can't let Xemnas... have Kingdom Hearts. You _can't_." The horizon reflected beautifully off of those crystals, forming and drifting from her slender body. The golden sun, the warm, dusky sky, and the soft-looking cloud cover complimenting it. It felt surreal.

His eyes snapped from her glowing, crystallizing body, back to her eyes and gentle face as she spoke a soft goodbye.

A tiny smile settled over her pinkish lips. He half expected her her giggle, even though she didn't. "See you again. I'm glad... I got to meet you. Oh..." Her chest gave a gentle huff, as if she went to chuckle, but her lungs failed her at the last moment. "and of course, Axel, too. You're both my best friends."

_We are... were, friends?_ he thought, blinking, as if to clear away to the jumbled contents of his head. Her eyes seemed to drift briefly behind Roxas, studying the Station building behind him, before focusing in on his eyes once more. It was almost as if she were reluctant to look away for more than a few seconds. Roxas felt something within him sink at her words.

She was going to die, wasn't she? It was strange. He'd never been exposed to the idea of death before. After all, he hadn't been _born_, so why would he or the other Nobodies of Organization XIII ever have to concern themselves with something as petty-sounding as _death_? Only... now that it was in his arms, it didn't seem quite so _petty_ anymore.

Could Nobodies even die, in the first place?

Her sapphire eyes were only open a fraction, now, her voice fading as she spoke again. "Never forget," she breathed, hand raising to press against his cheek, cradling the right side of his face oh-so delicately. He could feel a faint warmth seeping through the protective black leather. "That's the truth."

Roxas studied her again. Her short black hair, her dulling blue eyes, her Organization adornments, and then the surge of alien things within his body. _Could this be... am I... __**feeling**__ something...?_ he wondered. But... Nobodies did not have hearts. They couldn't _feel_ anything!

Then... why did he have such a deep ache in his chest?

His eyes widened, and a shuddering breath escaped his lips, as the stranger – no, as his _friend's_ hand – fell away from his skin. Her eyes had now closed. Roxas caught the limp hand in his own with a desperate, trembling "_no_!" He stared at her face, as if expecting her to suddenly open her eyes, spring to her feet, and laugh, claiming it was all just an elaborate trick. That she was alright, and _did not just die in his arms_.

"Xion!" he cried out softly, the hand over her shoulder tightening its hold forcefully, trying to get some sort of reaction out of her limp, lifeless body, "W-Who else will I have ice cream with?"

It was all he could do, to sit there helplessly still, as the glassy crystals shot forward, encasing her body in their hold. Like a beautiful, incandescent chrysalis, from which his dear, sweet friend would sprout her wings and fly. Away from Twilight Town, away from Roxas and Axel, Organization XII, Kingdom Hearts, maybe even the world as they knew it. _Is she going to Sora?_

Xion's small hand became intangible, fading away into bright flecks of light along with the rest of her corporeal form, dissipating into the air and heavens like a fleeting ray of sunshine, before a dark, looming storm cloud covered up its light. Her felt her weight vanish like a fleeting breeze, and glanced back down to his arms.

Where she once lay, was now the fragment of a seashell. It was a deep, blushing pink at its pointed base, before widening, changing at the end into a soft, golden-harvest curve. It looked like a single, forgotten flower petal. Roxas remembered, that when he would suddenly fall unconscious for days on end, Xion would place one shell of any and every shape, size, and color she had collected by his pillow. One for each day he was asleep. He had repeated the action, when the same would happen to her.

Her picked it up gingerly between his thumb and index finger. The glimpse of a memory flashed through his head. Sitting up on the Station roof, in front of the Clock Tower, eating baby-blue bars of sea-salt ice cream and watching the horizon as their days of work came to a close. Sometimes, Axel would be with them, and sometimes it would just be Roxas. Sitting there, by himself. In the mental flashback, she turned to him, with a sugary-sweet smile, like a settling aftertaste of the ice cream bars they had enjoyed so much. Her ocean eyes would be wide and bright with a Nobody's form of joy and content. They seemed to hold a smile and laughter, all on their own.

As quick as the flashback came, it faded, leaving Roxas sitting there, all alone, on his knees, struggling to cope with this new, gaping _wound_ that seemed to have opened in his chest. He could feel that creeping darkness, blacker than any shadow or Heartless he had ever faced, settle, deciding to call his body and soul its new home. It was toxic. Roxas couldn't tell which he wanted to do more; scream, be sick and pass out, or just quietly slump to to the ground like a beaten dog and give up. Both sounded unpleasant, yet bizarrely appealing at the same time. Anything to escape this metaphysical agony that clawed at what _should _have been his nonexistent heart.

His shoulders shook and his hands quaked as that feeling seemed to strangle him, building up into his chest and throat like bile waiting to be expelled. His face felt flushed, his eyes unnaturally dry and itchy.

He felt warm moisture gather on his lashes, blurring his wavering vision, as Roxas stared down at the flower-petal seashell that rested innocently in his guilty hands.

He had done this to Xion. He had engaged her in combat, and won, sending her to her doom.

He swallowed reflexively, voice hardly audible and trembling like a leaf in a gale when he spoke.

"_X-Xion_..."

Water dripped from Roxas' vibrant blue eyes, and tickled its way down his cheeks, as what could only be the pain of _grief_ finally took over.

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Regarding my inactivity:

I'm sorry guys, but I actually have some reasons, believe it or not.

School ends in a few weeks, and between trying to raise my grades, big end-of-the-year class projects, and prepping for finals, I haven't had the time nor the drive for any writing. I've also run into quite a few personal health problems, for sleeping problems, depression, amongst... other things. I should be seeing a sleep specialist soon, and hopefully getting a psychiatrist, so I can sort these things out, but knowing how my mother works, it probably will be a little while... (Seriously, took me three-plus years to convince her I needed to see these kinds of people).

Anyways, I've also hit another writer's block, most unfortunately. Especially with _Only Human_. HOWEVER:

_**I WILL NOT BE ABANDONING ANYMORE STORIES.**_

I refuse to. I've come about a new plan, and a way of plotting out my stories' chapters before writing. Hopefully it will make things flow more smoothly in the future. I'm working on one for _Only Human_ and its remaining chapters now, as well as some minor plotting for some of my more developed plotbunnies. (Good God, I have SO many. You guys are in for one Hell of a ride in the _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ franchise with me! XD)

Also, I was wondering: are you guys getting bored with my current stories? Do you want me to write more fics in fanbases like this? Besides _Kingdom Hearts_, I also have a few more ideas in Fanbases such as _Ouran Host Club_, _Warrior Cats_,_ MLP: FiM_, _Wreck-It Ralph_ (though that one is more of a one-shot than anything), and maybe a few others, if given some time.

I mean, either way, I'll be writing them at some point. But if you guys prefer my _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ stories to stuff like this, than I'll be making those more of a priority.

Anyways, I'm sorry for being so inactive, but it's a little beyond my control at this point. I hope you can understand.

LOVE YOU ALL!

~Fallen

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Reviews = Love!


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